Last week was a crazy week for the Arabian Peninsula- Saudi Arabia, which has been building a wall on its northern border to keep out the ISIS menace it helped to create, just lost its aged, repellent king only to replace him with his aged, repellent brother. Meanwhile, Shiite rebels have overrun Yemen's capital.
It looks like the Arabian Peninsula is facing big problems. I can't shed any tears, though, as the place is a hotbed of Islamic Sunni fundamentalism, and the wellspring of Wahhabist terrorism throughout the world. Vixen Strangely has put up an appropriate obit for the royal shit, a great antidote to the fawning panegyrics to the bloodstained tyrant. Meanwhile, the Shiites running amok in Sana'a could present a counterbalance to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, perhaps the most significant balance of terror since the original Star Trek aired.
The Arabian Peninsula is in disarray, but perhaps the reality of the sectarian war finally coming to bite its inhabitants in the ass is the best thing to happen to the Islamic world since the fall of the Ottoman Empire. It took the horrific violence of the Thirty Years War to end the religious wars on the European mainland and usher in a more secular culture... let's hope the current sectarian strife in the heart of the Middle East will weed out the fundamentalists on both sides of the Sunni/Shiite divide and allow a more pluralistic society to take hold.
I'm not holding my breath, though...
Meanwhile, I wonder if one of the reasons for the Saudis flooding the oil market is to gain an influx of cash in order for the royal family to make a mad dash to safety in exile.
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3 comments:
Nope. The Royal family ain't going nowhere. They believe wholeheartedly in their Saudi/Bahrain/Egypt approach to maintaining control. Lots of money to bad actors to go away, and a brutal secret police that makes opposition painful and deadly. Plata O Plomo.
And remember, when they ARE toppled, it won't be by people demanding liberal democracy, it will be by people who truly believe that the Royal Family hasn't enforced a true vision of Islamic rule - that they themselves were too liberal.
And if/when a true, full-scale Sunni vs. Shia sectarian war breaks out, pitting Iran against Saudi and perhaps Pakistan, the generational hatred that will generate will resonate down through the next hundred years of history...
I almost added the Saudis to my "no further fucks shall be given" list on my currently ignored Herlander blog. But alas, they have entirely too much sway to ignore.
But hey, if Hailey's Comet is REALLY going to hit us in 40 some years (unless Bruce Willis saves us?) can Arabia be ground zero? Yeah, yeah, it will kill ALL of us if it hits -- but still, them first, ok?
Lots of money to bad actors to go away
Worked (and continues to do so) on our government.
~
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